2025 Survey of Residents of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Views on Agriculture and Water Quality

This study captured public views on agriculture in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed (CBW) in May of 2025. The survey was conducted among residents (18+) living in the CBW region (Delaware, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia) and consisted of questions exploring respondents’ level of awareness of and views on water quality issues in local streams and waterways and the Chesapeake in general. The survey also investigated respondents’ perceptions of causes of water quality issues, how to address water quality issues, and the future of agriculture in urbanized areas (including views and values placed on urban agriculture, perceptions of issues related to agriculture, perceptions of agricultural land loss, views on solutions for agricultural land loss, and attitudes about the urbanization of agriculture in the CBW) including scenarios developed by the Thriving Agricultural research team to ensure agricultural is economically viable and environmentally sustainable in the future. Respondents were recruited by Qualtrics through an online panel and were compensated for their participation in the study. Data was gathered from a total of 1006 respondents. Rakes weights were constructed using estimates of age, gender, education level, and race from the American Community Survey (ACS) for the 2019–2023 year period at the national level because the study used non-probability sampling techniques to choose participants.